The complex debate over controlling sprawl is not an effort to stop growth, but rather to focus progress to make our entire country more livable.

The expanding consciousness around sprawl encompasses virtually every environmental thought I have ever had – from my earliest college exposure to sensible city planning to breaking news that the worldwide amphibian die-off may come from particulate air pollution poisoning their immune systems, to the daily thud of evidence from around the world that global warming is real and accelerating.

Well-planned cities and towns become beacons of hope, rural areas preserve our sacred American heritage by staying rural, forestlands are harvested but remain wild, and wilderness, ecological reserves and other special places live forever without being squeezed to death by random development.

Cities and towns can become warm and safe places for people and culture to flourish, without subsidizing the expensive gaggle of public services needed for spotty outward metastasis. Livable mixed residential communities allow people to walk and bike to work, shop and play. Old and young can mix and share for mutual benefit. Seniors become less isolated and depressed. No one need escape urban blight to trophy homes and gated communities without soul.

Sensible mass public transportation frees us all to again appreciate the joys of driving our cars on the open road, the efficiencies inherent in city exploration by clean rail and bus routes, and safe skyways – to see the beauty of traditional farms and ranches on rolling hills, and wild lands framed by untrammeled view-sheds. All God’s creatures need enough land to prevent extinction by habitat fragmentation.

Americans have inherited a deep-seated need for nature in our daily lives. We yearn for the wild at every order of magnitude – from the tiny grids of green adorning city apartments and offices – to the breathtaking vistas of the Grand Canyon and “purple mountain’s majesty.” Frederick Law Olmsted designed the renowned “Emerald Necklace” coursing through Boston. We need to plan for a new age emerald necklace of “vest pocket parks” and playgrounds in all our crowded cities and residential areas.

But we need much more.

Every building should be environmentally and emotionally friendly, and energy-efficient, incorporating all the evolving fundamentals of the new urbanism. Clean air, water and open space benefit even the urban poor and homeless.

America needs more emerald ribbons of protected woodlands and waterways, walking trails and bikeways coursing through the land, connected into a well-planned and unified system throughout North America. We need an emerald crown of ecological preserves, wilderness areas and parks where millions can seek solitude in land that is large and beautiful, without the intrusions of our hectic modern world. Olmsted also designed Central Park where, even though surrounded by a phalanx of tall apartment buildings, there are remnants of nature that give city dwellers solace. The world needs more of his genius everywhere.

You don’t have to live your life in the wilderness to benefit daily from nature’s inherent spiritual values. Just knowing it’s there gives us joy. But the end of this American frontier of the soul approaches.

The ugly storm surge of sprawl is breaking over us and will soon put many more of America’s special places off-limits to those unable to afford private kingdoms or expensive domestic safaris.

The ugly swarm of “No Hunting,” “No Fishing” and “No Trespassing” signs already overwhelms traditional landscapes and uses of our lands.

Accessible and abundant green spaces get us off our couches, out of our cars and involved in healthier lifestyles that combat our ubiquitous plagues of obesity and heart disease, anxiety and depression, substance and self-abuse. We can contain sprawl through smart growth, have all the combined benefits of the Information Age and the Industrial Age, and save our beautiful little blue-green planet for our children and theirs.

Dr. Paul A. Liebow is a member of Physicians for Social Responsibility. He lives in Bucksport.